Friday, January 4, 2008

documenting change: seven.

the waiting game.

Last night I finished the last of my grad school applications, and this morning I mailed it off! I have applied to these MFA fiction writing programs: UT Austin, TX State San Marcos, UC Irvine, Sarah Lawrence, NYU, Johns Hopkins and UVA.

I have preferences – UT Austin, UC Irvine and Sarah Lawrence are my top three schools – all equally positioned in my mind. NYU is up there too. Truth be told, I’d be thrilled to get into any of the programs to which I’ve applied, and I'd be elated to get adequate funding so I can actually attend.

Now, I wait for spring. And as I wait, I work on new stories, I submit to journals, I continue working for an amazing poet, I continue this blog, and I continue freelance writing for Country Roads. And MAYBE, I take on just a bit more freelance work (that is yet to be determined)…

The other thing I do while I wait is burn off the energy that comes from anxious waiting. The triathlon I start training for in February takes place on April 22nd… For this very moment, I will revel in the fact that I am FINISHED with the GRE and FINISHED with applications.

In the meantime, if anyone has attended or does attend any of the MFA programs to which I’ve applied, I’d love to hear your thoughts.

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About Me

I was in fifth grade the first time I imagined myself as a writer. But trying to live out that image seemed impossible and impractical. So I studied English and worked in publishing. I thought working in the world of writing would satisfy my desire. Instead I felt frustrated not playing the role I wanted to play within that world. I tried to figure out what else I could do that would be practical and creative at once and went back to school for landscape architecture, which led me to work as a rural and urban community planner. Then my mother died, and I found myself asking,"Do you really want to get to the end of your life knowing you never tried to do what you love and long to do?" Now I have my MFA in creative writing. Sometimes I write fiction, and I try to get it published. I think it's worthy and believe some editor will think the same. Sometimes I write this blog, which is less composed, a kind of word-purge. I may never live the precise image I saw in fifth grade, but I am satisfied trying. And if I do achieve that image, it will no doubt be at a slow pace. I have always been a turtle.